1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to programming development environments performed by computers, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for remotely scripting local objects in a network server.
2. Description of Related Art
With the fast growing popularity of the Internet and Intranets, especially Web-based networks, there is also a fast growing demand for Internet and Intranet access to databases. Web-based networks operate using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTTP is the protocol used by Web clients and Web servers to communicate between themselves using these hyperlinks. HTML is the language used by Web servers to create and connect together documents that contain these hyperlinks. This protocol and language results in the communication and display of graphical information that incorporates hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are network addresses that are embedded in a word, phrase, icon or picture that are activated when the user selects a highlighted item displayed in the graphical information.
In contrast, most RDBMS software uses a Structured Query Language (SQL) interface. The SQL interface has evolved into a standard language for RDBMS software and has been adopted as such by both the American Nationals Standard Organization (ANSI) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). Thus, there is a need in the art for methods of accessing RDBMS software across an Internet or Intranet, and especially via Web-based networks.
There is also a need for simplified development environments for such systems. For example, the internet server and the relational database management system usually reside on different computer platforms. This makes the development of software providing access to database management systems via the Internet difficult and time consuming. In particular, the fact that the software is developed with a single development computer, but eventually executed on multiple computers limits the effectiveness and completeness of debugging modules on the development computer.